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Despite 31 points from Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 97-85, it was only their fifth loss at the United Center all season.

“They’ve obviously played at such a high level all season, that when a game like [Monday night] happens, there’s a little bit of alarm and a little bit of anger and a little bit of surprise,” K.C. Johnson, of the Chicago Tribune, said on the Mully and Hanley Show.

“I actually kind of liked the postgame vibe. You had guys like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah openly swearing. You had guys apologizing via Twitter. You had Tom [Thibodeau] saying ‘well, we’re just going to practice harder.’ The one thing you don’t have to worry about with this team is putting the work in. Tom did mention that he’s seen some energy sagging at practice, of late. The starters have not done a good job in the first quarter of the last few games. But I don’t think this is any cause for great alarm. I think this is something they’re going to address and correct in short order.”

The Bulls will have an opportunity to bounce back from this loss on Wednesday night, when the team travels to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. More importantly, with nine games left on their schedule the Bulls still have a two game lead over Boston and Miami for the Eastern Conference’s top spot